About the author

As a freelance journalist, Anouk (26) usually writes about what other people do or like. In her precious spare time she watches arthouse films. Not a few. A lot, thanks to her trusted Cineville pass. Here she can finally share her film-fetish with the world.

To watch or not to watch? Anouk will tour around Amsterdam’s cinemas and answer this crucial question every Friday. Without mercy, of course. Sucky movies will be slaughtered, cinematographic pearls will be appreciated as such. Or the other way around. After all, good taste is in the eye of the beholder.

Get Low

Film starts. Main character appears. First thought? ‘Hey, it’s that scary old guy from Home Alone, who actually wasn’t scary at all, but just very sad, because he didn’t see his daughter anymore.’ Or not? Nope. Shame on me, it’s the great actor Robert Duvall. From the Godfather, The Road, Deep Impact, and so on.. (Ok, I had to IMDB that). Duvall plays Felix Bush, a hermit in the woods of Tennessee. The old man is an outcast in the near village, a lot of stories are told about him. Mister Bush decides to throw a funeral party. His own funeral party to be precise, where he will finally tell everyone the real story about him. Bill Murray (always awesome) and Lucas Black (insignificant sidekick) are organizing the festivities. While they’re busy doing so, Bush reminisces with his old lover: Sissy Spacek. (Yes, it’s definitely Carrie!)

Coming closer to the end titles, you’re quite curious about what Mr. Bush has to say. But even if he wouldn’t have told us anything, this movie is still interesting. A bit slow (but hey, it’s the 1930’s), yet intriguing.

La Nostra Vita

Oh boy, those Italians. They always fulfill me with high expectations. Gomorra was great, Il Divo was great. Why would La Nostra Vita be? Well, because it ain’t. Only the first 25 minutes are. We get to know a happy couple with two cutypie kids and a baby on the way. They really love each other, you can almost feel it (Not being sarcastic here..). Then the woman dies while she’s giving birth. This could have been the start of an subtle film about love, loss, hope and family. But no. It’s about the father and his building site. He is the supervisor and that’s not going so well. The poor guy doesn’t have enough money, he has to deal with obstinate, illegal, immigrant employees.. and o yeah, there is a corpse in the lift shaft, belonging to the father of one of his Romanian employees who is also his new best friend and babysitter. Yeesh! I haven’t even mentioned the disabled pimp/drug dealer and Senegalese prostitute.
Great movie if you want to be disappointed.

Silent Souls

OMG fellas! I just don’t know what to say about this thing. For the first time in my entire life I walked out of a movie. Not only because of the actual movie, my sister continuously sighing next to me didn’t help either. I really, REALLY, didn’t like it. Maybe my intellect isn’t as big as I thought. This film was highly appreciated in Venice, for Christ’s sake.

The total absence of ‘lust for life’ makes it so unbearable. And there’s the depressing Russians. Two of them. They have a dead body in the back of their car and they are going to cremate it ‘Merja-style’. (The Merja are an old Finnish tribe, just so you know.) The two drive through a desolate landscape, on their way to a ‘holy lake’ where they will cremate the body. Did I mention the dead body is that of the deceased wife of one of the Russians? Wild guess, the cremation scene was a spectacular climax in all sorts of ways (being sarcastic now). Go see for yourself.